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Nasri brace leads Man City over Chelsea at Yankee Stadium

Ramires, Samir Nasri

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

By DAN KARELL

BRONX, N.Y. – For the final time in the 2012-2013 season, Chelsea and Manchester City took the field, putting on an eight-goal thriller in the Bronx.

City finished off their post-season tour of the U.S. with their second win in as many games, beating Chelsea 5-3 in front of 39,462 fans on Saturday night at Yankee Stadium. City midfielder Samir Nasri and Chelsea midfielder Ramires each had a brace as the clubs head back to England for the offseason.

City got off to a quick start in the third minute thanks to a lackadaisical pass by Chelsea midfielder Oscar, which went straight to City forward Sergio Aguero. The Argentine’s shot was stopped by Chelsea goalkeeper Hilario, but the rebound went straight to midfielder Gareth Barry, who passed into the open net.

After a couple of near misses by Chelsea forwards Demba Ba and Fernando Torres, City struck again on the counter attack in the 29th minute. David Silva cleverly played Nasri through, who chipped the ball over Hilario and in the net to make it 2-0.

Just seconds after the second half began, Chelsea sprung into action, as David Luiz played Ramires into space, allowing the Brazilian to round substitute goalkeeper Richard Wright and cut the deficit in half.

One of City’s many second-half substitutes, James Milner, restored the two-goal cushion with a powerful strike in the box into the far post in the 55th minute. Though Ramires would score again in the 69th minute from close range, Nasri was up to his old tricks again in the 74th, chipping Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech and making it a 4-2 scoreline.

Chelsea midfield maestro Juan Mata hit a perfect free kick off the crossbar and across the line in the 82nd minute, but City forward Edin Dzeko struck right back, blasting a shot from 35 yards out past the diving Cech to make it 5-3 in the 84th.

After the final whistle, both teams spent time to applaud the fans before heading off the Yankee Stadium field.

Comments

  1. There are actually a lot of genuine Chelsea and Manchester City fans in the United States. Being a Chelsea fan from the United States, I know that it takes dedication to get up at 4:30 in the morning sometimes just to watch some EPL games on the weekends. And believe me, my girlfriend hates it. But I wouldn’t miss my team play for the world.

    I actually went to both of the matches here in the states, and I must say I had a great time.

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  2. These matches are obviously meaningless, but that’s not the point at all folks. Many of us yanks truly love Chelsea (in my case), as well as City. We get up early on Sat or Sun each week, or take the afternoon off when there’s a match during the week… just to see the best football in the best league in the world. So when there’s a chance to see the best players in the world (even if playing on at 50%), we jump at the chance. I’m with you all. It was fixed indeed to put on a show, to capture the Americans attention span which requires higher scores, and close matches. I was the same way initially before understanding the game, and appreciating all good play in front and away from the net.

    The U.S. is coming along in football, thus I remind my English brothers who won the group in the last WC that both the U.S. and England shared. 😉

    Bottom line is it’s good for football for America to improve. What I mean by that is the U.S. is the largest advertising market in the world x 10. (It’s true). The more the U.S. spends on EPL, the more money for owners to spend on players in the EPL… not to mention struggling teams to also potentially to see a bit of that as well.

    I went to the St. Louis match, and it was weird to see in a baseball field… but was cool to see my team regardless. Lighten up mates. They’re on the way back. 🙂

    Cheers,

    A Chelsea Fan in America

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  3. Maybe it is because New Yorkers are more savy than than most. A meaningless game on a freezing cold, blustery, rain soaked day. I’m surprised they got as many as they did. I would guess that 39,000 is a higher attendance than half the Premiership teams capacity.

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  4. Over 48,000 came out to see the same game in St. Louis, with a metro population of 2.5m. A reported 10k paid $20 each to see Chelsea practice the day before.

    But you can’t put 40k in Yankee Stadium, with a Metro population of 19m, and a few hundred thousand tourists coming to town for a long weekend?

    And as far as that promised attendance from the ethnic communities, who’s running the numbers on how many Argentinian, French, Bosnian, Romanian, Czech, Serbian, Ivorian, Swedish, Brazilian, Belgian, Nigerian, Portugese, and Senegalese fans were there tonight to see their stars?

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    • It’s not like their thirst for the sport has been satiated. To see any level of professional football, you have to drive a taxing twenty miles from Yankee Stadium…and who is going to do that?

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  5. I can’t believe 90% of those people pay roughly 3 times as much as RBNY ticket to see a meaningless game that players don’t want to be playing in

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      • Actually I don’t even know why people always say that…..other than the games after South Africa 2010…the stars are all there….and this series of City vs Chelsea….maybe because it was a end of season tour….but I mostly saw starters and guys who maybe aren’t starters but play regularly like Gareth Barry…. I can’t think of many of their stars who didn’t play….maybe Lampard and Terry which as old as they are I can understand

  6. Two top English clubs playing a one off event in New York and they don’t draw 40,000 but we are supposed to believe two MLS clubs will average over 20,000 a game each?

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    • First off they were off your so called target but what a few hundred big deal. They got almost 40k to come out in the rain which will be a higher total then every MLS game tonight. And from the looks of NE and DC maybe combined lol. It doesn’t matter if the stadiums are half full in a city like NY. A half full building in NY still is worth more then a full building in almost any other city in this country. Is it fair maybe not but is it true yes. Life isn’t fair and neither is sports. Every sport understands this and crams as many teams into NY as they can MLS is no different.

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